AOC warns she may force House members to return for stimulus vote, potentially delaying final passag

[Jose Garcia]

Source: CNN

(CNN)Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the high-profile freshman from New York, is leaving open the option of forcing House members to return to Washington to cast a vote on the $2 trillion stimulus package barreling through Congress.

The New York Democrat has expressed her frustration with reports of the stimulus deal, suggesting it's too tilted towards corporations. The deal was reached between senators from both parties -- including the senior Democratic senator from her state, Chuck Schumer, and the White House.

On Wednesday, Ocasio-Cortez told CNN she is not ruling out asking for a recorded vote, which would force lawmakers to return to Washington and vote in-person, something that most members of Congress are eager to avoid amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Ocasio-Cortez said she hadn't seen the final bill text yet, "but I'm open" to asking for a recorded vote "if necessary."


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-coronavirus-package-vote/index.html

[LisaM]

1. Why?

They just showed Katie Porter on quarantine. How does she go back?

[still_one]

2. Exactly

[elleng]

6. She may be excused.

[rampartc]

14. why? because they are about to give trump a lot of borrowed money

if there is insufficient oversight and safeguards it will be wasted.

[Thekaspervote]

15. Have you read the breakdown and the safe guards?

Trump and his merry band cannot borrow for their junk companies, and there will be oversight.

[rampartc]

18. bookmarked

for when the reports start coming in and our congresscritters start with the "we could never have foreseen they would do that."

the rules should be changed to allow remote voting

[Thekaspervote]

19. Such a positive attitude ☹️ as stated above in another post I trust warren and Schumer

[rampartc]

20. i do not trust trump

and neither should schumer or warren.

[Gore1FL]

24. DU has lost it's mind.

FWIW, I'm with you. There is nothing wrong with getting this right and not making it another giveaway to the rich under the auspices of coronavirus relief.

[ehrnst]

81. What makes you think that they do?

[RhodeIslandOne]

43. Donald Trump's non-conviction lets him do whatever he wants

That’s the bottom line.

[lark]

51. Trump will do exactly as he pleases and give himself $$ through some backdoor.

When caught, he will lie, cover it up and refuse to produce any materials and repugs will go along with it, so she's right, it is a total sham, given the abject traitorous criminal currently infesting the WH.

[rampartc]

73. +1

[Hotler]

55. I have not read the bill yet but, I don't beleive of one second that..

there will be any meaningful oversight. If there is oversight wording I doubt it will have any teeth.

[rampartc]

72. will any of trump's people even show up for hearings?

i doubt it.

[KPN]

68. The bill gives Mnuchin (tRump's direct report) full authority and control of decision making over

$450 billion that can be leveraged by the Federal Reserve by up to 10 times that amount -- i.,e., sole authority over ultimately $4.5 trillion by Mnuchin in concert with the Fed Reserve if I'm reading the info on this link right and the article is correct about it.

[link:https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-mnuchin-unemployment-not-relevant_n_5e7cb949c5b6256a7a25ecec|

If this is correct, I'd say that that isn't a safeguard, it's a give away of astronomical proportions. I'm pretty sure I know exactly where most if not all of that money will go -- not in the hands of American workers who are impacted by COVID-19 and must use up their savings (if they have any) to survive.

I am skeptical about the efficacy of the "safeguards" given this info. I mean seriously, what could go wrong?

[rampartc]

71. mnuchin is famous for mortgage foreclosure fraud

i would not give him "discretionary authority" over a bag of nickles.

[KPN]

89. Good point.

[ehrnst]

82. Why do you think that Bernie voted yes for the final bill?

[KPN]

90. Good question. I think probably because of the old saw,

you shouldn’t let the perfect stand in the way of the good. This is a dire time. Any good is better than none. But that doesn’t mean the bill shouldn’t be the subject of criticism for it’s shortcomings or it’s inequities, especially from a Democrats.

[ehrnst]

91. Who has said any bill should not be subject to criticism? I think that we should not be

slamming certain Democratic leaders for doing what can be done, when it can be done.

[KPN]

94. Who slammed "certain Democratic leaders for doing what can be done"?

Geesh.

[ehrnst]

95. "f this is correct, I'd say that that isn't a safeguard it's a give away of astronomical proportion"

Someone is "giving away," yes?

[KPN]

96. Stretch extraordinaire.

[ehrnst]

97. Nope. An astute observation.

You're welcome.

[KPN]

98. Bigger stretch.

[ehrnst]

99. Nope. Just a clear analysis.

You're welcome.

[KPN]

100. Nope. Stretch -- and that's a euphemism.

[ehrnst]

103. Nope. Clear -- analysis.

Which seems to make you unhappy, despite the appropriate response, which would be gratitude.

So again... you're welcome.

[LisaM]

22. I mean why can't they figure out a workaround for travel.

I think the bills should be scrutinized.

[rampartc]

23. this is the 21st century, after all

its a trillion dollars and they need to at least read the bill, or at the very least have a staffer who reads the bill.

[JudyM]

46. History. Real needs in this country are shoved aside while our "leaders" lavish their own desires.

One of our CORE NEEDS is robust oversight of all spending and all legislatively bestowed gifts. Actual accountability would dramatically change the country.

[totodeinhere]

66. The bill is far form perfect. But I think that protecting the safety of House members and their

staff is a higher priority. It would be dangerous for them to travel back to Washington and it would not be possible to practice proper social distancing in the House chamber.

[lagomorph777]

49. Inexcusable to vote in person. Regardless of whether a vote is needed,

it would be insane to assemble the House to infect each other. Fer Dawg's sake, which century are we in? Nancy, call the IT department and set up remote voting!

Sheesh.

[NYC Liberal]

57. It's not about the technology. Obviously that exists.

The main reason remote voting isn’t allowed is to ensure that no coercion is involved. Can’t put a gun to someone’s head on the floor of the House.

But yes, something will need to be worked out, clearly.

[lagomorph777]

58. There's been coercion for years (maybe the entire life of the Republic).

Something as gauche as a gun on the floor went away in the early 19th century. That doesn't stop coercion.

[applegrove]

3. I think rethink that. Republicans can afford private jets. Dems not so much.

[EX500rider]

83. So all our Dem pols are poor? News to me. nt

[applegrove]

86. Not poor. Just not friendly with CEOs who will lend them jets.

[ehrnst]

92. ....

https://www.forbes.com/sites/douggollan/2020/02/15/senators-sanders-and-warren-endorse-the-benefits-of-private-jets/#1b8d5e542495

[elleng]

4. From what I have heard, 'forcing' them back will not be determined by AOC,

but by the rules and circumstances. (This from N. Pelosi and Katie Porter.)

[True Blue American]

44. I hope so!

[lagomorph777]

50. Yeah, I hadn't heard that AOC got elected Speaker.

[happy feet]

54. Ditto

A bit sick of AOC getting press as if she has more wisdom, experience and intelligence than the duly elected Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. If AOC had been listened too, the House wouldn't have impeached Donald Trump. Schumer (who gives credit to Warren and has been in conversation with Pelosi every step of the way) have negotiated in major safeguards to the corporate funds as possible. Work the process, but enough of the vanity, only, holdups.

[redstatebluegirl]

79. Me too!

[still_one]

75. LOL. No kidding

[RandySF]

5. And endangering lives.

Didn't she get the memo about social distancing?

[Phoenix61]

7. She needs to rethink that. This. Is. A. Pandemic!!!

Pass the damn bill. People need money.

[TexasTowelie]

8. Grandstanding during a time of crisis.

The Trump administration is salivating at the prospect of creating ads that will hurt all Democrats if AOC delays passage of the bill.

[BlueIdaho]

29. Doesn't she have a primary challenger?

This stunt isn’t helping her or us.

[TexasTowelie]

32. I know that she is being challenged in the primary.

However, I'm not the most informed member on DU about the race.

[BlueIdaho]

35. Thank You - me either.

[Igel]

48. She has her priorities.

For all the "it's just to give money to the workers" there were a lot of things like board restructuring and other kinds of reporting and oversight over corporations that had nothing to do with the fund distributed and their use.

Never let a crisis go to waste. It's an opportunity to get things accomplished because of the increased leverage. "Do this, or we'll say you hate the workers." "But what you want has little to do with the pandemic and stimulus." "See, everybody, they hate the workers!"

[LudwigPastorius]

9. I trust Sens. Schumer and Warren on this.

Now, is not the time for a delaying power play like this.

If Rep. Ocasio-Cortez doesn't agree with what's in the bill, she can vote "no".

[Thekaspervote]

17. +1000

[msongs]

10. ah no medicaL problems in her district so why not right? hmmm nt

[The Magistrate]

11. This Does Not Seem A Good Move At Present, Sir

The young woman seems to have sound political instincts generally, and I would expect her to have a good career and valuable in Congress. But unless she has some means of actually changing the text, which I suspect she does not, putting everyone to trouble and delay will be achieve no good purpose. Perhaps it is a 'tit-for-tat' with Gohmert's similar shenanigan's earlier in the process.

[cstanleytech]

28. Well there is one potential upside if it was to happen and that is it would force the Republicans in

the House to go on the record.
If they vote no then it can be used against them and if they vote yes some of their own people will use it against them and if they abstain it can be painted either way so they still get slammed.

[BlueIdaho]

31. How many people will suffer

To make a political point?

[cstanleytech]

37. A lot of course so it might not be worth it.

[totodeinhere]

67. Such considerations are outweighed by the necessity to protect the health of the House members

and their staffs. It would not be possible to observe proper social distancing in the House chamber.

[TeamPooka]

12. The House needs to vote on this in a legit way. It's already a clusterfuck giveaway

to corporations

[cstanleytech]

38. I'm not happy about giving the corporations any help either after they have been helped twice.

First with the varies bailouts and loans when were in the Great Republican Recession and then later on when they got all those tax cuts as both times they simply bought their stocks back to raise the share prices and still kept offshoring jobs while not significantly increasing the average workers wages.
On the other hand atleast its not being done like how Trump wanted it done with him being in control of the dispersing it because we all know he would have provided little to no assistance to California and New York.

[Indykatie]

13. AOC Never Misses An Opportunity to Be in the Spotlight

This is ridiculous and she needs to follow Speaker Pelosi's lead. Timing is of the essence.

[Rebl2]

56. Exactly!

I think Pelosi needs to have a talk with her. She can always vote no. Don’t know how her constituents will feel about it if she votes no. I’m guessing they won’t be happy with her.

[Thekaspervote]

16. Aoc has no cards to play! Pure grand standing

[rdking647]

25. and congressman that tries to delay this should be run out of washington on a rail

i dont care who they are or what party. its nothing more than political grandstanding.

as far as im concerned they should be booted out of congress...

[True Blue American]

45. Agree 100%

A reminder. What happened to the small Republican Freedom Caucus? Most gone, all defanged.

I think Gym and MCCarthy are the only 2 left.

[cilla4progress]

26. Why can't they vote

remotely.

[Steelrolled]

78. It's nothing to do with the actual voting

It is an obstruction technique. Obstruction is one of the first things our fine politicians (of all parties) learn when they go to Washington.

[MarcA]

27. Read the Bill Electronically. Vote Electronically.

As long as the system is Secured.

[PatrickforO]

30. I have not read the bill, but I will say this:

Because the Democrats stayed tough, the bill likely does have some good provisions for workers and may even permanently strengthen safety nets such as UI, which the Republicans have cut away at for decades.

That said, no matter how much oversight is to be placed on this $500 billion going to Mnuchin, one guy is still going to have half a trillion dollars. Now, if that was going to be used mainly for small businesses, to keep them afloat and to keep their workers on payroll, great.

But my fear is that it may be used to funnel money to big multinational corporations while not requiring much of them except not to pay executive bonuses or buy back shares. It would be better (and I know, the Republicans would never agree) if the money had strings attached that forced an expansion of fiduciary responsibility of corporate officers beyond mere shareholder earnings - in other words move corporations receiving the aid permanently toward an expanded stakeholder model of operations rather than shareholder primacy.

AOC takes a lot of flack, sometimes rightly, but she does understand this about corporations. If we forced these entities to a stakeholder model it would solve a plethora of problems moving forward.

[DeminPennswoods]

41. Not sure if this is the same 500B,

but I heard on MSNBC, I think, that this money is actually reserved for the Fed to use to help businesses. The term I heard used was "money cannon" to be aimed and fired as needed.

[KPN]

101. Hear, hear!

[bubbazero]

33. Simple Question?

Did Rep AOC ever open an office in her congressional district? Just wondering

[George II]

36. She has a part-time office in Queens and a desk in the corner of her State Rep's office in Bx.

[Historic NY]

52. She won't need them

after Bernie loses.

[George II]

34. The Senate just passed it 96-0, give me a fucking break! More grandstanding and headline grabbing.

[keithbvadu2]

39. Instead of corporate bailout, just refund the taxes they have paid.

Instead of corporate bailout, just refund the taxes they have paid.

[EllieBC]

40. Loooooook at meeeeeeeeeee!

I’m with Schumer and Warren and I’ll continue to side with the adults.

Her constant need for attention is not needed at this point.

[MoonlitKnight]

42. It would be nice if we actually snuck something into the bill

Unlike what usually happens when we rush to pass crisis legislation in the trillions of dollars.

It seems the bill has most of what I wanted, but I have an uneasy feeling about this. Moscow Mitch is up to something.

[BlueIdaho]

61. Our Democratic Senators

Were on this bill like a dog on a bone. Most of the truly egregious stuff has been carved out of the Senate bill. What passed was much better thanks to our hard working Dems than the crap the conservative lobbyists served up for Mitch to pass.

[KPN]

102. Including the tax breaks for wealthy real estate investors?

Defined real estate investors as those with annual income greater than $500k. Now who could possibly benefit from that?

[lostnfound]

47. This will destroy her presidential chances in 8 years. Please don't.

She may be right but I’d really like to see her as president someday.

[Thekaspervote]

62. Never!! Running primaries against great Dems like Sharice David's & Hakeem Jeffries..stupid

Not presidential material, nor a solid enough dem. She doesn’t care about the democrats anymore than sanders does

[Maxheader]

53. BRaindead *%##

They need to immediately get money out there to the critical need areas...pay for it out
of the final/passed bill...

[marble falls]

59. I'd be mightily disappointed if she did that.

[Happy Hoosier]

60. Don't be an asshole AOC.

No, this bill is everything we might want. But since we don;t control the entire government, we won't GET everything we want.

It's called being a fucking grown-up.

This is what our leaders were able to extract. It's not perfect, or complete. But it is a damn sight better than what we started with. And speed is an important element here.

[gab13by13]

63. AOC is correct about the bill.

From what I heard the 500 billion will go to the Fed as a down payment for them to spend another 2.6 trillion or more. No one has oversight over the Fed. I may be totally off base about this but nevertheless this is just another example of what Naomi Klein wrote in her book The Shock Doctrine, disaster capitalism or as I like to call it highway robbery.

When these trillions of dollars get spent Republicans will have a change of heart about spending money and the debt and then they will come after Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

I guess 1.5 trillion dollars doesn't last very long, corporations spent it on buy backs and bonuses.

Picketty was also right, this is going to really widen the income inequality gap.

[MineralMan]

64. She appears to be following Bernie Sanders' lead on this.

A singularly stupid thing to do in an election year for a freshman in the House. With NYC the focal point for COVID-19 right now, such an action on AOC's part would be political suicide. She has competitors for that seat.

Don't be foolish, Representative Ocasio-Cortez. You have considerable promise as a member of Congress. Don't blow it all away for a futile stand. Stop listening to Bernie, please.

[Jose Garcia]

69. Sanders voted for the bill

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=116&session=2&vote=00080

[MineralMan]

70. Yes he did, after not being at the Senate during the creation of it.

Then, he did a grandstand play, threatening to hold it up that was pure freelancing and a campaign gimmick. In the end, he voted on it, and it passed unanimously. It would have passed, in any case, and so will the House bill. The public will not tolerate any delays on this bill. Being the initiator of delays will be a huge mistake for anyone who tries that tactic.

People are panicked about all of this. For most, what exactly is in the bill doesn't matter. They just want to see something heroic being done. Anyone who gets in the way of that is likely destroying their future in Congress, to be quite frank.

Senate Democrats did a good job of delaying it until it got some much-needed tweaking. The House needs to pass that bill and move on to other things, I believe. AOC is making a mistake that could easily cost her the NYC district she represents. There is zero patience in New York City, to be quite frank, and rightly so.

[Steve.in.AZ]

65. AOC and Bernie have this one right,

I think. This is the biggest move to date in the far-right program of robbing the rest of us to give to the 1%.

Remember, these same corporations swore in 2017 they'd use their tax windfall to boost employees' pay. They didn't. They bought their own stock in order to boost shareholder value. Now they're cash-poor when a crisis arises. Who could possibly have predicted that?

I say not one more penny of taxpayer money to the corporations. Let's give direct relief to workers in the form of moratoriums on rent, mortgage, tax, and utility payments. That's the way to really help working families. Then let the feds help the affected companies on a case by case basis.

Lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled tougher oversight plans for the massive business bailout program at the heart of the latest coronavirus stimulus bill, after Democrats attacked the measure as an unchecked slush fund.

The effectiveness of the measures will hinge on how the new oversight entities are structured, what powers they have and — perhaps most importantly — who's selected to run them, according to watchdogs and veterans of the bank bailout oversight programs.

source: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/25/government-track-bailout-funds-148641

[onenote]

74. Bernie voted for the bill. I guess you hadn't noticed that.

If Bernie is the pope of the progressive movement, what is the point of AOC trying to be more Catholic than the pope?

[still_one]

76. +++

[ehrnst]

80. What are you talking about? Bernie voted yes for the bill in the Senate....

[Steve.in.AZ]

85. I know Bernie voted yes.

They all did. And I realize it's more complex than I was making it out to be.

My point was to say, as Bernie has, that there are alternatives.

In my view, the approach being contemplated in the UK, for instance, is superior. It would guarantee all workers 80% of their wages if unable to work, and it would prohibit layoffs and firings.

Also, some states and localities are implementing the moratoriums I mentioned.

There are ways to bail out the public without pushing more trillions of dollars upstream to the already-wealthy.

[ehrnst]

88. If there were actual, factual, real alternatives, then why did he vote yes to this bill?

There are ways to bail out the public without pushing more trillions of dollars upstream to the already-wealthy.

If that's true, then why didn't Bernie present them to everyone, and get them voted on?

[RelativelyJones]

77. Classic AOC. Acting like she has more power and influence than she really has.

[onenote]

84. A republican is threatening to delay the vote in the House--another reasons for AOC to stand down

If republican Thomas Massie carries through with delaying the vote, any political capital we would gain from that move would be lost if AOC also (admittedly for different reasons) also seeks to delay it.

[George II]

87. That means she's got to go to Washington, too. BUT simply asking for a recorded vote probably....

....means only those in attendance have to vote, they don't ALL have to vote.

[Marrah_Goodman]

93. I like AOC, but this pisses me off

Without help from the bill our healthcare workers can't do their jobs. If she delays things more people will die then need to.